


You Radiate Emotion That I Just Don't Understand

by Jag_Erin



Series: Tomorrow Is Another Day [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Coffee, Continuation, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Five Doesn't Actually Appear In The Story, Manipulation, No Smut, Office Work, Open Ending, Sequel, Time Travel, doughnuts, old romances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26205460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jag_Erin/pseuds/Jag_Erin
Summary: Not much has been happening for Dolores since Five disappeared in 2002, but as Doomsday approaches, things are starting to get interesting.-Sequel to "She likes Sequins"-
Relationships: Dolores & Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy) & Original Character(s), Original Character(s) / Original Character(s)
Series: Tomorrow Is Another Day [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1903129
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

“How is your first day going?”

Dolores sighed as she looked over the stack of files in front of her, “It’s fine, Dad. I’m just working,” it wasn’t that hard. Just statistics stuff. It was her job to find ways that the Temps Commission could carry on their work with the least amount of damage to the timeline. Even though part of their job was to keep the timeline correct, sometimes their corrections needed correcting. That’s what part of her job was to do. To work out how they could be better at their job in keeping the world running smoothly.

It was a lot of paperwork and staring at numbers all day. She didn’t mind though. Numbers were always comforting for her. 

“Getting a lot done today?”

She cared about her father and people seemed to generally like him, but he was a little annoying. It wasn’t surprising that her mother drank too much. Sometimes overly kind and cheerful people could bring out the worst in others. Her mother was one of those people. He loved the woman, but she didn’t seem to feel like she was capable of living up to the standard of her own husband in terms of outlook on life, “I could get more done if people would stop talking to me.”

The only reason she even bothered coming to work here was that they were going to pay for her college. Having a family that worked for the Temps Commission made it difficult to apply for things like scholarships. Better to just do her internship and get the money that way. Her parents had tried to raise her as normal as possible, but it was difficult, and entering adulthood hadn’t been easy. Being smarter than most of the people around her made it hard. There weren’t many people she could connect with. Even here at a place like this, it was hard.

“Are a lot of people bothering you?”

He never seemed to stop and he didn’t get the hint, “Just you, Dad. Shouldn’t you be getting back to your own files?” he bounced between case management and analytics. 

“I have plenty of time. I’m at lunch. Wanted to come to see how my daughter was doing on her first day,” he smiled and she tried not to roll her eyes.

“Again, I could be doing more, and better, if you weren’t talking to me, Dad.”

The situation didn’t improve as a smiling woman poked her head through the door, “Hey, Herb, are you coming to the cafeteria? Oh! Is this your daughter?!”

“It is,” they both sounded entirely too cheerful to be at work, “Dot, this is Dolores. Dolores, this is Dot.”

She forced a smile and looked up at the smiling woman in the blue dress, “Hello. Please leave.”

“She’s feisty, just like you, Herb. You must get it from your dad,” Dolores wanted to wretch. She was nothing like either of her parents, “You should come join us for lunch today.”

“I’d rather eat this jar of thumbtacks.”

The woman named Dot and her father both laughed, “She really takes more after her mother. Do you want us to bring you back anything, Sweetie?” it amazed her how unprofessional people could be here when they were dealing with such extreme situations and work.

“Coffee. Black. The largest cup they have.”

“No food? That’s not good for you. We have all kinds of stuff here at the Commission.”

Her eyes narrowed at the other woman, “Do you think you’re going to have room for food when I shove this stapler down your throat?”

Dot finally gave up, putting her hands up a little and backing out of the office. Her father seemed to realize it was time to move on too, “I’ll come by to check on you later, Sweetie.”

Dolores settled into her chair again, but stood back up fast and leaned over the desk, “A doughnut! I’d like a doughnut!” she called out after her father. A coffee and a doughnut were her usual lunch. It wasn’t the healthiest, but she balanced it out with her other meals and it was habit at this point in her life. 

The Temps Commission wasn’t a terrible job option. She hadn’t really decided what she wanted to do beyond going to college just yet, but she imagined she might just end up back here. Growing up as a child of a Commission employee came with a lot of conditions. Few to no friendships, always moving, sometimes switching years. She had managed to live the majority of her childhood in the same place and time, but then her father got a promotion and that meant a lot more constant changes. 

There were a lot of days spent sitting at a desk in her room, alone, just reading her books and making her notes. When she was sixteen, she even had her father take back the phone he had brought her from the Commission that let her call people in other times. She’d wanted it at first, but after it not ringing for so long, she saw no point in having it sit there just to look at. After a while, she didn’t go to the library that much anymore either. It was just easier to tell her father what book she wanted and he would bring it home from the Commission. Sometimes, they didn’t even live in a time when she could go to school, which just isolated her further. 

Dolores didn’t mind it. She thrived on her own. At least that’s what she told herself. One of those lies people tell themselves to be able to cope with reality.

Sighing, she pulled open the top drawer of her desk and pulled out her phone. It was mostly a glorified music player. The internet and communicating with others wasn’t on her list of interesting things to do. Though she did like Spotify. Music, like math, was a language of the universe in her mind. Where math described the universe, music explained how they felt about it. 

Pushing the little earbuds into her ears, she turned the app on before she got back to work.

“ _It’s a new day, but it all feels old. It’s a good life, that’s what I’m told. But everything just feels the same…_ ” she muttered softly as she turned her attention back to her files.


	2. Chapter 2

Taking the earbuds from her ears, she looked up at the man standing in front of her desk, “Can I help you with something?” though her tone said she was not interested in helping at all.

“Just bringing by your mail,” he smiled. He was her age, maybe a little older. Attractive, by most standards. Nice clean cut, blond hair with a strong structured face, and nice green eyes. Tall too. The suit he was wearing fit him nicely. Like most around here, his suit was a shade of blue. It was a good dark blue that suited him nicely. 

Dolores pointed to the little black file holder on the corner of her desk, “And that requires you to stand there like a…” she almost said fish, but she had learned in her time here at the Commission not to make fish comments, “...a gawking toddler? Are you incapable of reading the sign on the front of the file holder that says to put mail there?” Dolores had a bit of a reputation for being harsh around here, but she didn’t think she was any worse than anyone else. They couldn’t all be like her father, after all.

He laughed, “I heard you were mean,” she didn’t take offense to that. Dolores saw no reason to sugarcoat her thoughts or feelings. She was a twenty-nine, almost thirty, year old woman, not a hormonal teenager after all, “I didn’t believe it, but I do now.”

She stared at him blankly for a moment, “Just do your job and put the mail down and leave. Unless you’d like me to shove this doughnut somewhere it doesn’t belong.”

“Wow. You are snappy. I’m Leon Graves since you seemed to have forgotten about introductions.”

Enough was enough. She had work to do, “Listen here, you simple man-child, I don’t have the time or the desire to have conversations with the likes of you. If you don’t leave now, I will have to remove you myself. I promise, that will be a very uncomfortable and unpleasant experience for you.”

Leon, now that she knew his name, laughed softly and set a large envelope into her file holder, “Okay, okay. I get it. Not a people person. I’m new to the home office and just thought I’d introduce myself around.”

“New to the home office, but still delivering mail. I’m sure your parents must be so proud of how ambitious you’ve been. Leave.”

He didn’t though. Instead, he moved the mail cart to the side and leaned up against it, “I’m impressed. No wonder you don’t need the air conditioner on in here. I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t even melt on the surface of the sun.”

“Are you getting off on this? I really don’t think getting on my bad side is of any benefit to you.”

“Maybe a little,” he teased, but her face was still unchanged, “You got that resting bitch face down. Listen, I really just wanted to introduce myself. I might have made a mistake in not taking the hint, but I really didn’t mean to upset you. I have a hard time reading between the lines,” Leon moved to grab his cart, “Also, I’m not just some mailroom guy, I’m the new head of the mailroom guy. So yes, my parents should be proud. After all, without me, your files don’t make it where they belong.”

“You can leave now.”

He nodded and picked up the envelope he had left in the file holder, “Nice to meet you too…” he read her name off from the envelope, “...Dolores. I’ll see you around,” he dropped it back into the holder and started out of the small office.

It wasn’t until he was fully out of the office and she heard him walking down the hall that she settled back into her seat and tried to refocus on her work. She shivered a little and sighed. Her nerves felt on edge now. It had been over ten years since she started working for the Temps Commission and most people knew by this point to leave her be. Even her own father didn’t come to pester her near as much anymore. 

After doing a two-year internship at the Commission, they let her pick the college and year of her choosing. Between classes, she continued to work for them. After graduation, she maintained her job here, but with a pay raise and benefits now. She had a small apartment in the city and a dog. His name was Mr. Pennycrumb. The teenage daughter of the woman who lived three doors down, Abigale, had a key to her apartment that she used to occasionally sneak wine from her and to walk Mr. Pennycrumb before and after school. 

She had a fairly set schedule. Dolores began her day at six in the morning. Doing light yoga in her living room, most of which she had a terrible form, but it made her feel good to do it. Then coffee and some fruit. After which it was time for a shower and getting dressed. She would braid her hair that had never been cut before in her life and wrap the braid up into a bun to be bobby-pinned into place. By a quarter till eight, she was driving to work. She didn’t have a great parking spot, so she wore tennis shoes and changed into her work-appropriate heels when she got closer to the building. Then a quick stop in the cafeteria for a cup of coffee and to get a doughnut that would sit on her desk until lunch. Dolores would spend almost her entire eight hours in her office, only leaving for the bathroom occasionally. She didn’t take breaks or actual lunch hours. There was no point in that when she had nothing to do during them. More coffee from the coffee pot in her office around four. Back into her tennis shoes to make the walk to her car at six and drive home. Play with Mr. Pennycrumb a bit, work on her private mathematical studies that never seemed to have an end because they had no goal, a glass of wine, then bed by ten.

It was a good routine and Leon had cut into it. She didn’t have room on her schedule for other people. The most interaction she really got was when she paid Abigale on Saturdays for walking Mr. Pennycrumb. 

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and started to reorganize her thoughts. Push that annoying man out of her mind and just get back to work. Dolores gave herself harsh deadlines to meet. It helped to keep her on track and keep her from distraction. What she needed to distract herself from was buried deep in her mind. Things that happened years ago that didn’t matter anymore but had helped shape her personality and current frame of mind. Those things that every adult has that they don’t want to talk about.

Taking another deep breath, she picked up her earbuds and put them back in so she could get back to work.


	3. Chapter 3

“What do you mean there aren’t any doughnuts?” she’d been getting a doughnut from this cafeteria every morning for over a decade, “There are always doughnuts.”

“I’m sorry, Dolores, but we don’t have any left.”

“Any left, so you sold them all. Already?”

“I don’t want to have a fight with you, Dolores. We don’t have any, so we don’t have any. Do you still want the coffee?”

She took a deep breath and nodded, “Yes.”

She muttered and cursed under her breath the whole way to her office that morning. Sat agitated and glancing at the spot on her desk next to her coffee where her doughnut usually sat. It wasn’t a good morning. Routine was something she relied on to keep her going. Dolores didn’t like change at this point in her life. Changes never went well. 

There was nothing wrong with wanting the comfort of routine.

By the time lunchtime came around, she debated going back down to the cafeteria to see if they had any doughnuts. That, however, would mean risking seeing people she would rather not. Which was basically everyone. Her father and Dot would try to talk to her and guilt her into sitting with them. If she did it once, she’d have to do it again and that would throw her off completely. 

“Want a doughnut?”

Her head shot up from the paper she was looking at. Leon was standing in the door with a plate with two doughnuts on it, “What’re you doing?”

“Bringing you a doughnut. Want one?”

Dolores stared blankly for a moment, “Did you buy those this morning?” she tended to assume the worst of people. It was easier that way. He had been a pain in her side for the last few weeks. Always trying to talk to her when he came by to leave her mail. Even though he said he was the head of the mailroom, he seemed to like personally delivering her mail. Dolores found it annoying and told him that every day. The last two days, she hadn’t acknowledged him at all. Pretending he didn’t even exist when he’d come into the office.

“What? In some terrible attempt at forcing you to communicate with me? By buying up the one thing I know you eat here at work every single day? That would be just...mean.”

“So you did do it.”

He smiled, “No. I didn’t. I promise. When I bought mine this morning, there were plenty left. But I heard you had a little upset this morning when there weren’t any left,” she wouldn’t call it an upset. More just a few tense words, “I thought about eating them both, cause I paid for them and they are mine and you are kind of a bitch, but...I thought you might like one.”

It took a few moments for her to think about what exactly to say. She wasn’t sure how to respond to someone behaving this way to her. Dolores didn’t like it. It made her feel strange, “How much are you going to charge me? I’m not paying more for it than it costs to buy in the cafeteria.”

She didn’t like his laugh. It wasn’t the tone of it. No, that was tolerable and pleasant enough sounding. It was just that he did it too much. It unnerved her, “I wasn’t planning on charging you anything for it. Just thought we could sit in here and eat our doughnuts together.”

“So I have to eat it with you?”

“I mean...you don’t have to do anything. Not if you don’t want to.”

Dolores felt weird again. The last time she shared a doughnut with someone was nearly seventeen years ago. That was the last time she ate with anyone other than Mr. Pennycrumb or her parents. She’d spent a lot of mealtimes during school hiding in the bathroom because she couldn’t stand the way her older classmates looked at her. The one person she had felt comfortable enough to spend time her time with had ended up being just as awful as everyone else.

“No thank you. I have work to do,” she grabbed up her papers and started shuffling through them.

Leon didn’t seem to accept that, “You have to eat something. I’ll just leave it for you,” she watched out of the corner of her eye as he set one of the doughnuts down on a napkin on the corner of her desk next to her coffee, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Once he left, she continued to work for a good hour before finally staring at the doughnut. It made her feel things she didn’t want to feel. Made her think about things she didn’t want to think about. Those tiny little lies she told herself all the time to make herself feel better about her life all sat right in the front of her mind as she stared at it. Dolores didn’t want to feel like this. She wanted to be happy with her life, but she wasn’t. She was just a sad office worker. There wasn’t anything special about her anymore. There had been when she was younger. Perhaps if Five hadn’t disappeared, she might still be special. Just because then she would have someone to bounce her thoughts and ideas off of that would understand them and be able to put them to practical use. Without him, she was just a girl who happened to be smarter than most of the people around her but with no ability to use it for anything. She was just left making notes in notebooks that no one would ever see.

She’d waited and waited for months for him to call her back. She’d called him several times to leave her phone number for him, but he never called back. When she finally convinced her mother to bring her back to the city, he didn’t meet up with her at the library as they had planned. She tried to go to the Academy, but that was no luck. She wasn’t one of them and they weren’t about to spend their time answering her questions. As the years passed, she saw news of them on occasion, but Five was never part of it. Dolores was left to assume he’d gone ahead with his plans of time travel and left her behind. 

She decided she would wait for him. He’d turn up one day, she told herself. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and months into years. Just a few more years and it will have been two decades she’d been waiting. Not that she told herself she was waiting anymore. She just avoided other people anymore.

Reaching out, she picked up the doughnut and moved to toss it into the small trashcan next to her desk. She held it over the bin for a minute. If she dropped it in there, that meant she was going to keep waiting. Possibly for another twenty years. Waiting for her time-traveling boyfriend to finally show up. Even if he did show up at this point, what would he even be like? There was no telling the effects it would have on his mind, but his body would likely be just as she remembered. If he jumped straight from when he left to them meeting again, he’d be a thirteen-year-old boy. What was the sense in waiting for that?

Standing fast, she slow jogged from the room and rounded the corner only to be surprised by Leon standing there, “Fuck…” she gasped a little.

“Sorry. Just thought I’d wait. Figured you might change your mind about eating together.”

Dolores inhaled sharply, “My office and...and don’t assume things. I don’t like it.”

“Understood. You’re the boss.”


	4. Chapter 4

“So you dated one of those Hargreeves?”

Dolores smiled a little down into her coffee, “Not really dated. We were just twelve. We just ate a lot of doughnuts and talked about math. It wasn’t really a big deal and it was just for a few months.”

“But you cared about him, right?”

Leon had been coming to eat lunch with her in her office every day for the past few weeks. It was strange having the company, but it felt kind of nice, “I mean...as much as a twelve-year-old can care about somebody.”

“Which one was it? Weren’t there like six of them?”

“Seven, actually.”

“Oh, so you know about the secret one,” she smiled again as he said it. He sat in a chair next to her desk and she swirled her coffee cup around a bit, “So which one did you date?”

She shook her head a little, “It doesn’t matter. As I said, we only hung out for a few months. Why do you care so much?”

“I don’t. I’m just curious. I haven’t dated anyone with special powers, so just curious when I hear about someone who has.”

She smirked and laughed a little, “We literally work for an agency that sends people throughout history and all of time. Isn’t that special enough for you?”

“Yeah, but we don’t really get to do anything fun with it. Really the only ones who _do_ anything are the Corrections Agents. Us middle management ones don’t really get to do anything except come to this 1955 hell hole every day.”

Leon wasn’t wrong. She wasn’t fond of the dress code or the fact that everything had to be done with the most antiquated technology. Dolores had been working here for years, but she didn’t really know anyone here. She barely knew the layout of the building other than how to get to her office. She didn’t concern herself with who was hired or the gossip. None of that mattered to her. She just sat alone in her little office.

“It’s not so bad. If you hate it so much, you should find a new job.”

“In this market? You do know the retirement package, right?” of course she did. Getting to live out the rest of their lives with comfortable wealth in the time of their choosing. It was a great benefit. 

“So, Dolores, I was thinking about something…”

“I know how difficult that is for you.”

“Ouch. Are you this mean to everyone?”

She tried not to smile again. He made her smile too much, she realized and she hadn’t decided if she liked it or not, “Yes. Of course,” they had finished their doughnuts and her coffee cup was nearly empty, “I should get back to work. What was it you were thinking about?”

“Well,” he stood up and she continued to sit, not thinking much about it. But instead of moving for the door, Leon leaned over and surprised her by kissing her softly. She felt her heart speed up. Dolores didn’t have much experience in kissing. It wasn’t like she’d ever properly kissed someone before. The one previous kiss close to that she had experienced was when Five had kissed her. This wasn’t the same though.

Leon wasn’t some hormonal, nervous twelve-almost-thirteen-year-old boy. He didn’t hesitate and he didn’t pull back looking away shyly. He held the kiss for what felt like a long time and even when he did break away, he smiled softly down at her, “I was thinking about asking you out for dinner tonight.”

Dolores was hard to catch off guard, but this had thrown her off. It took her a moment to process what he’d said, “Dinner?”

“Yeah. There’s this new Italian place and I was thinking about going tonight, but I’d rather not go alone. Are you free tonight?” he was still leaning over her a little, resting a hand on the desk to brace himself.

She wasn’t sure what to do or say. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been flirted with before or asked out. A guy in her apartment building had asked her out a few years ago, one in the grocery market had asked her out in the frozen aisle once, and a man at the library had asked her out last year. Dolores never entertained the idea. She always turned them down or just outright ignored them.

This was different though. Dolores had decided she needed to make a change in her life. No more waiting for someone who wasn’t going to show up, “I, uh...I would...like that.”

“Really?” he sounded surprised, not that she blamed him for it.

“Yes. Really,” she felt her cheeks warming up, “But only if you don’t mind me rambling about the new physics book I’ve been reading.”

“I look forward to it. How about we just meet up outside in the parking lot after work and we’ll drive there. Separate cars. No pressure,” she liked that. He was trying to be considerate.

“I like that.”

He smiled and she felt her heart beating faster again, “It’s a date then,” a date. Her first in so long. 

She watched as he started to leave and the urge to say something came on her fast. She wanted him to trust her and she wanted to trust him, “Leon,” he turned as he got to the door, “It was Five. The Hargreeves boy, his name was Five.”

“Five, huh? I don’t really remember what they do. What’d he do again?”

“Time and space abilities. Like teleporting, sort of. It was more complicated than that,” but she figured he didn’t want to hear about the specifics.

Leon smiled more and she felt her face getting hot, “Thanks for telling me. You didn’t have to and I wouldn’t have been upset if you didn’t.”

“I know. I’ll see you tonight,” she couldn’t help the smile crossing her face this time and she didn’t want to resist it either.


	5. Chapter 5

It was strange to deal with the fifties society when she knew that she was actually part of twenty-nineteen. Dolores didn’t care much for fashion, so she didn’t mind the dresses. She tended to keep it as simple as possible. Though she didn’t like the expectations that went around when she was outside of work or her apartment. So when they went out to eat and the waiter asked Leon what she wanted, she had to bite her tongue. 

She did like walking around the park though. It wasn’t something she took the time to do before. It just wasn’t a part of her schedule, “I’m sure you’re tired of listening to me go on about The First Three Minutes,” it was the most recent book she had read.

“Not at all. I’m not that into physics, but I think it’s nice listening to you talk about it. I might learn something,” Leon had managed to put up with her pulling her notebook out at the dinner table, her occasional insult, and talk about physics and numbers for the last few hours. 

“I feel like I’ve just taken over the conversation and not given you a chance to talk,” she wasn’t used to taking other people into consideration. 

He smiled as they circled the center of the park not far from her apartment. After dinner, they drove into town in their own cars and found decent parking spots. He lived further away from the city, but she would just have to leave a little early tomorrow morning to get to her car, “I don’t mind. I don’t have a lot of interesting things to say, so I’d rather hear all the interesting things you have to say,” he had a way about making her face flush, “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as smart as you before.”

Dolores knew she was smart. She didn’t anyone to tell her that. Still, it felt nice to hear, “There’s a difference between being smart and being able to apply what you know to practical use.”

“Oh? So why don’t you apply it?”

It was a good question. A lot of her earlier studies were things she had come up with during coffee and doughnuts with Five. Theories about time travel and how to make it work properly for someone like him. A lot of her focus was on time and the physics of it. All of which always led back to her feelings about Five. She’d never really taken a hard look at how that had affected her. She had felt comfortable with someone for the first time in her awkward life and it went bad in the end. She had essentially stunted herself because of it.

“It’s complicated,” actually it wasn’t, “No. It’s not really. It’s just...I don’t feel comfortable around people.”

“I’m guessing this has to do with Five Hargreeves?”

Dolores was silent for a few minutes as they kept walking, but she finally responded, “Yes.”

“You were just kids, how could it have been that bad?”

“Five wasn’t a normal kid and neither was I,” though she lacked the superpowers, “We were rather mature for our age. A lot of my reading and studying and work at the time surrounded what kind of application it could have in regards to his abilities.”

Leon nodded, “What happened between you two? Just a falling out? Getting older?”

“I wish it were something that simple. He disappeared. I mean, I never got confirmation of that, so I shouldn’t assume, but he was talking a lot about attempting to time travel. I just thought he would…” she hesitated, “...I thought he would tell me before he tried to do it.”

“What would you say to him if he did turn up one day?”

That was a good question. It was a hard one to answer. She hadn’t really thought about that, because she had decided a while ago not to plan for eventuals. To plan for certainties, “I honestly don’t know.”

“Do you think you’d be angry?”

Dolores wasn’t prone to anger. Annoyed and irritated, maybe, but not much for anger. It was a waste of time for the most part. What was the point of getting angry about something? It just didn’t make sense, “I don’t know. I think I should be, but I’m not sure if I would be. I mean, what if it’s not his fault? What if he wasn’t ready for the jump and just jumped too far. For all I know, he could show up one day as a thirteen-year-old boy still.”

“I guess that makes sense. Personally, I might still be upset with someone if they chose to do something so risky and didn’t tell me they were doing it first.”

This wasn’t the first time Five had been brought up in their conversations tonight, “Maybe we could talk about something else?”

Leon smiled, “Of course. Anything you want,” she followed his lead as he started for the exit of the park, “I guess it’s my turn to apologize for something. It was rude of me to kiss you earlier today.”

Her cheeks warmed up a bit, “Thank you for apologizing,” she wasn’t going to say that it was alright or okay. Because it wasn’t. She was willing to accept the apology without forgiving the behavior.

“I just really like you, Dolores, and I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

She couldn’t relate. It was rare for her not to think something through, “I understand. Next time, just let me know before you do something like that again. Don’t just assume I’m okay with it. It’s, uh, it’s been a long time since I’ve been close to anyone. So this just feels very new to me.”

“If you don’t mind answering, I know you’ve not been in a relationship in some time, but have you been, you know...intimate...with anyone? No drunken party nights in college or meetups at the bar or something like that?”

That was an extremely personal question and Dolores didn’t feel entirely comfortable answering it, “I really don’t think we know each other well enough to talk about that. I will say, though, I started college when I was sixteen. So not a lot of drunken anything going on.”

“That’s fair. Just thought I would ask to see what I should expect would be acceptable or expecting.”

There weren’t many out this late at night, but she wasn’t concerned. Her apartment wasn’t far and she didn’t feel unsafe with Leon, “I’ll just say that you shouldn’t be expecting much.”

“That’s a good answer. I’ll take that,” he said before pointing to a car, “That’s my car. You okay to get home or you want me to go with?”

“I’ll be fine. It’s not far.”

He stopped and she stood in front of him as he started pulling his keys out, “Would it be too much to expect a kiss goodnight?”

Dolores smile, “Thank you for asking and yes. A little too soon for that.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll see you at work tomorrow then.”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow, Leon,” her heart was beating a mile a minute as she started to walk away from him. Dolores hadn’t felt like this in a long time.


	6. Chapter 6

It was so rare for her to step foot into other areas of the office. To be sitting in the Handler’s office and in front of her desk, Dolores actually felt a little nervous. There had never been a reason for her to come to this area of the building before. There was nothing here for her. Her father had tried, over the years, to walk her around and introduce her to people. It just wasn’t something she was interested in. It didn’t serve any purpose to her. So to get the request to come here, she was a little shocked.

It was very nice, clean, and well organized. She was sure there wasn’t a spec of dust on anything in here. There were artifacts that she was sure shouldn’t be here, but Dolores didn’t see a reason to snitch about it. It was very large and important looking. Not like her tiny office with its little two drawer desk and typewriter from the stone ages. She actually felt a little small sitting here. It wasn’t like her to feel beneath anyone, but she knew this was a room for someone who did things a lot more important than what she did. This wasn’t middle management.

The woman who walked in looked like she belonged in here. She didn’t look like the other people who walked around the Temps Commission office. She was made up nicely and extravagantly. Her dress was very form fitting and high fashion. The emerald green color of it was bright and very different from the muted blues most wore around here. She walked tall on her heels and confidently as she moved behind the desk and sat across from her.

“Dolores, correct?” even her voice had a confident tone to it. This was a woman who knew who she was, what she wanted and never questioned herself.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Herb’s daughter, right?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” she felt it was best to keep her answers short and to the point. This was someone in a higher position than herself and not someone to upset if she wanted to keep her job.

“Good,” she smiled, but it made her uneasy to watch this woman smile, “I’ve been looking over your files and I have to say, I’m impressed. You’re very good at your job. You certainly have an eye for numbers and detail.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

“We’re considering opening a secondary home office type of place for the Commission. Somewhere a little more modern. As a young woman and one who is good at her job, I would like to see you as the head of our analytics department over there,” this was more surprising to hear than getting called to the office in the first place. 

Even though she had decided to keep her answers and talking to a minimum, Dolores couldn’t help herself, “Isn’t that something Human Resources should be discussing with me, Ma’am? Not to be rude, but it’s not really your department. I always thought your position was more about Case Management and Corrections.”

The Handler’s laugh was more unnerving than her smile, “True, but in order to move up beyond middle management, where you’ll be stuck at forever if we don’t have this discussion, you need to prove yourself a little more to our mission and cause.”

“And nearly twenty years of catching and correcting errors made by case management and corrections agents isn’t proof enough?”

“My, my, my, you are nothing like your father.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

“Listen, I know a smart girl when I see one and you’re a smart girl. You know that sometimes we have to be a little mean and bitter to get what we want in life. Sure, it means we’re not the best at making friends, but it means we get what we need. We are hard-working and independent. So sometimes we skip over unnecessary steps to get the job done quicker. Like ignoring the fact that HR is supposed to sign off on some promotions. Instead, we just forge a few documents and get it done.”

She couldn’t relate. Dolores always followed the rules at work. Not because she felt like they were the best option, but simply because she didn’t get anything out of not doing it. If the Handler was skipping over steps, then there had to be a reason for it, “And what do you get out of promoting me without an authorization?”

There was that smile again. Her red lips spreading wide across her face. It was creepy, “Let’s just say that I have a very big investment in a former employee who seems to have gone off the handle. I think you would be exceptional help in helping to...reel him back in.”

“I’m sorry, but corrections handling isn’t something I’m interested in. If that means I can’t get my promotion, then so be it,” Dolores wasn’t a fighter and she certainly wasn’t interested in dealing with the corrections agents. There was a reason she stayed out of the lower levels of the office. Not just because she had no interest in it, but because the ones down there tended to be out of their minds. They saw and did things that would make even the strongest of people cry. Some of them actually enjoyed the work they did, which made it all the worse. Dolores was bitter and a people person, but she wasn’t a murderer or a sadist.

“You misunderstand, Dolores. I don’t need you to actually do anything. You’ll be going along with one of my agents, but you’ll be there merely as...hmmmm...let’s say a reporting assistant. To take notes. To analyze the situation. That way for future situations of this nature, we have a guideline to follow. We’ve never had this come up before, so we’re not entirely sure how best to handle it just yet. Someone with your keen eye for catching errors will be a great asset. In return, you get a promotion.”

It didn’t sound terrible. It wouldn’t be all that different from what she did anyway, just in the field instead of behind a desk. The promotion didn’t really appeal to her all that much. Mostly because she didn’t really have a need for it, but she knew that titles mattered around here. With Leon in her life now, having been seeing each other for lunch and dinner most night for the past few months, getting a promotion would mean they could start dating more officially since they would be in similar higher positions within the Commission. Dolores was starting to warm up to the idea of having her first adult relationship and this did seem like a good way to go about it.

“I just have to be there?”

“That’s it,” she waved her hands dramatically, “Simple.”

“Who is the agent?” not that names would really stick out to her.

“No one super important. Just an old-timer who couldn’t handle the job anymore and went a little rogue,” she’d said that she had a big investment in this agent. That meant someone had screwed up somewhere and it was going to fall back on her. Dolores understood now. Her promotion would help to solidify that she didn’t talk about whatever it was she was going to see. Luckily for the Handler, Dolores didn’t really care about office politics, “What do you think?”

“...I’m good with it.”

“Fantastic. Tomorrow, you will be going with one of my agents to twenty-nineteen to handle the situation then. It’ll be on the second of April. It was a record hot that day, so dress appropriately for the heat,” strange that they would be going so close to the time her calendar at home said it actually was compared to her birth. She hadn’t been in her timeline since her attempt to go meet Five the summer following her family moving when she was thirteen. It would be strange to see her time again.


	7. Chapter 7

The Corrections Agents weren’t really agents. They were just assassins. Calling them ‘agents’ could help others feel better about knowing what they did. They found people, killed them, tortured them, and then went home feeling like they had done a good job. Dolores was just as guilty as everyone else who worked for the Temps Commission. She ignored what went on in the lower offices and just went about doing her job like it didn’t exist.

Walking down there today was strange. There were the training rooms where she could hear guns going off and people yelling. There was the storage room where any number of masked and unmasked agents wandered in and out of with various weapons. Then there was the briefcase storage. A small office, like her own, where one could check out a briefcase to complete their mission.

Dolores stood awkwardly outside the office as the agent she was going with checked out a briefcase. The agent was wearing a large mask that reminded her of that rat mascot for the pizza place she never actually went to as a child. A rat. That seemed fitting. Why some of them chose to wear masks and others didn’t, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it had to do with the time they were going to. It was possible some of them would be sent to their original times and not want to be recognized. Perhaps that was it.

“Ready?” his voice was distorted through the mask. Clutching her bag with the sequined plants on it, she nodded. Dolores saw no reason to talk to him unless she absolutely had to, “Let’s get this over with,” she took a mental note of the gun he was carrying. Apparently ‘reeling’ this agent back in could involve just putting him out of his misery. Dolores tried to tell herself that she was able to handle seeing that. 

Dolores had only traveled via briefcase once before and that was when her family moved here closer to the office. She knew it could be jarring. It was all covered in their office manuals. That it could cause slight itching, discomfort, and nausea. To prepare for that, she hadn’t eaten yet today. It would help to keep her from throwing up. The last thing she needed was a Corrections Agent to see any kind of physical weakness in her. She had heard stories about the agents getting free reign sometimes and going after other office workers. 

She closed her eyes as she heard the briefcase click. Even with her eyes closed, she could still see the bright light and her body felt the movement of time. It was such a strange feeling. If Five had time traveled, she wondered if it would feel the same for him. Was there a difference in the feeling of natural and unnatural time travel? Not that what Five did was entirely natural, but it was natural for his body, she assumed.

The sudden jerk feeling let her know that they had arrived. Her stomach flipped a little and she had to hold back the bile that threatened it’s way up her throat. It burned almost as much as the intense heat that waved over her face. 

Cracking her eyes open slowly, Dolores wasn’t prepared for what she saw. The sky was a strange, almost amber, color. The wind was blowing hard and the air felt hot. Among the smells were the scent of hot metal, burning wood, melted plastic, and burnt flesh, “What...uh…” she covered her nose to block out the smell. She wanted to cover her eyes too. It was both bright and dark at the same time. All around she could see crumbled buildings and fires smoldering. Pillars of smoke rose everywhere and from everything, “Where are we?”

“Twenty-nineteen.”

That wasn’t possible. Dolores couldn’t believe that, “Where though?”

“Don’t you recognize it?”

Her eyes scanned around the area and she finally spotted something. The sign used to be yellow and red with a large chocolate frosted doughnut in the middle. But now it was broken, smashed, and burning, “Griddy’s Doughnuts…” this was home, “That’s not possible. What happened?”

“Come on. We have work to do.”

Dolores wanted answers, but she also knew it wasn’t her place to ask questions. As they walked through the wreckage of the city, she couldn’t help but look at everything. The hot wind burned her eyes and she clutched her bag tightly. This couldn’t be right. If this really was the second of April, what did that mean for the rest of the world, “Is everywhere like this?”

“Yes.”

She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t help it, “Why? What happened?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

She supposed it didn’t. The Commission would always exist outside of the timeline. She would never have to worry about living in a world like this. She would always have the comfort of a nice air-conditioned office where she could get coffee and doughnuts any time she wanted. Where she could read book after book about time and space without ever having to worry about anything really. One day, she would retire and she’d pick a nice time to live out the rest of her days in. She would never have to share in this fate. Suddenly, dealing with corrupt office politics didn’t seem so bad.

“Who are we looking for? Am I at least allowed to know that for my notes?”

“Your old boyfriend.”

That was a strange answer, “Leon?” she had seen him last night. He was hardly some kind of rogue agent that needed to be hunted down. He was just head of the mailroom and he’d been at the office every day for months, “I don’t understand!” which was a rarity. Dolores tended to be well aware of what was going on around her.

“He’ll be showing up here in a few days, but that’s not the one she wants. She wants the older one.”

“I still don’t understand what you’re talking about! Take me back to the office!” he set the suitcase down by his feet and lifted his gun up. He was aiming it at her though, “What’re you doing?!”

“Tell me where he would go. We can’t find him. Tell us where Five Hargreeves would go.”

Five. This was about Five. But she still didn’t understand. She didn’t have a clue where Five was. She hadn’t seen him in nearly seventeen years, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

The gun clicked as he pulled the trigger and she jumped, but no bullet came out, “How lucky do you think you’re going to get? Tell us where he would jump to.”

She felt her heart beating fast and she felt faint as he pulled the trigger again and it clicked again, “I don’t know! He was only supposed to jump a few months, but he never came back! I don’t know where he would be now! I haven’t seen him in almost two decades!”

Dolores didn’t understand how the Handler would even know she knew Five. It wasn’t something she talked about. Except with… “Leon? Is that you?”

“Ugh...You just have to know everything, don’t you? Let’s get this over with, Dolores,” he pulled the trigger again and she screamed as she closed her eyes tight.


	8. Chapter 8

The voices floated into her throbbing head. It felt like she had the migraine of the century, “I really don’t think she knows anything about him now. She didn’t even seem to know that he worked for the Commission.”

“Well, he doesn’t, in her timeline. He won’t come in for another few decades. She’ll be long dead by then. Shame she couldn’t tell us what we wanted to know.”

She recognized the two voices. One was the Handler and the other was Leon. Memories started floating back into her mind as she woke up more. Leon pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t go off again. Dolores remembered trying to run, but he was faster than her. He caught her fast and no matter how hard she kicked or screamed or bit him, he didn’t loosen his grip. 

What happened after that felt like a blur. There was a lot of yelling and questioning. Mostly questions she couldn’t answer. They were looking for Five and had thought she might have information on him. That he might have tried to contact her in some way. They didn’t seem to want to accept that she didn’t have what they wanted. They threatened to leave her in that wasteland if she didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear. 

Everything had been a lie, she realized. Leon had never cared about her. He was working an assignment and she was the assignment. Get close to her and find out what she knew. When she wouldn’t let him in her life anymore, cutting him off from questions about Five or her previous relationship with the boy and continued to refuse access to her home, they decided it was time to try a different route. 

“What’re you going to do with her like this?”

“Why? You concerned?” she heard the Handler laugh.

“No. Just curious if you wanted me to finish her off or not.”

“Of course not, you moron. I spent a lot of money to get her like this and I have a new plan in mind.”

Dolores felt different. She couldn’t explain it, but something felt wrong, “What…uh…” she groaned.

“Looks like she’s waking up. Stand outside. I’ll call if I need help with anything else. I should be able to handle her like this.”

The sound of her heels on the floor made her groan in pain. It made her head hurt more, “Don’t worry, the headache will go away soon enough. We just need to get some fluids in you. Some food too. I hear you like coffee and doughnuts. I can get you plenty of that if it’s what you want.”

“...what did you do to me…?” she knew something had been done, but she just didn’t know what.

“Questions, questions, so many questions. Let me help you up and you can see for yourself. Try not to be alarmed, Dolores. I know this is going to be shocking for you, but I promise the minute we get Five back under our control, I’ll have you put right back into your original body.”

Original body? Dolores didn’t understand. She didn’t get what was going on and that made her feel uneasy, “What do you mean?”

The woman helped her sit up. Something felt wrong immediately. She felt...shorter, “I’d hoped he had tried to contact you, but either he doesn’t care or he didn’t know you worked for the Commission. I’m willing to go with the second one. After all, who really looks that hard for their thirteen-year-old girlfriend when their fifty-eight?” that still wasn’t making sense, “But I bet seeing you like this will slow him up at least a little bit.”

Putting a hand to her forehead, she looked around a little. What she saw on the table next to her nearly made her faint. It was her own body. The one she was used to seeing in the mirror when she dressed in the morning and did her hair. Just laying there. Like a corpse, “What...what...what…” she couldn’t seem to finish her question. There was just too much going through her head at that moment. It was overwhelming. 

“Don’t panic. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“What did you do to me?”

Looking down, she saw a familiar body and clothes, but they shouldn’t be there. Her old school uniform covered her torso and legs. Her hair was in two braids like she used to put it. While she had kept in decent health, it was obvious to see just by looking at her arms and legs that she was in more youthful health. Reaching up, she felt that her cheeks were a little pumper. Baby fat that hadn’t fully gone away yet.

“I can’t say I did you a favor, you’re much cuter when you’re older. And, sadly, if this takes too long, you’ll be stuck going through puberty again. If it was anything like mine, that was probably a bitch and a half. The Commission hasn’t done this sort of body modification and transfer before, so you’ll be a good test subject. Don’t worry. We don’t expect much damage beyond psychological.”

Dolores’s mind was running a mile a minute. This couldn’t be happening. She felt like she was going to be sick. No. She knew she was going to be sick.

Pushing the other woman away, she fell off the lab table and threw bile up on the floor, “Now don’t be so dramatic, Dolores. Hopefully, it’ll just be for a few days. All you have to do is behave yourself. Just stand there and look like an adorable little teenager for a few minutes and hopefully not trigger him into a homicidal rage. I’m sad to say that there is a very real possibility of that happening, but it is a minimal one. We’re not entirely sure how his mind will react to something like this, but we’re going to find out.”

“I...can’t...why...please...no…”

“Leon, come back in here.”

Her eyes shot up as he came in, holding the rat shaped mask under one arm. He didn’t look at her, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. She’d trusted him. Cared about him, “Yes?”

“We won’t be needing her for a few days. So take her back to her apartment and lock her up tight. I don’t want anyone seeing her. I’ll put in a vacation request for her. She has plenty of time saved up. I hear she has a dog, so you might want to pick up some dog food...or throw the thing out the window. I don’t really care which. Just keep her there.”

Her body felt too weak to even try to fight this time. At least before she had tried to run and fight, but she could barely keep herself sitting up at the moment. He hefted her up over one of his shoulders and she groaned, “Now, now. Don’t sound so sad. This will be quick, I promise. Who knows, maybe Leon will still want to play with you when you’re back in your regular body.”

“Not likely. She’s so fucking annoying. Math this, space that. No one cares that she’s a bitch, she is just annoying.”

“Hm, sad. Maybe don’t kill the dog then. .It might be all she has.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

She felt her head spinning, but it only lasted a moment as she blacked out again.


End file.
